Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Martock

This is a parish church of 13th and 16th-century date, substantially restored from 1860 onwards by Ferrey and Scott, with further restoration in 1883–84 by Ewan Christian. The building is constructed in ham stone ashlar with sheet lead roofs behind parapets.

The church follows a seven-cell plan comprising a 4-bay chancel, 6-bay nave, 5-bay north and south aisles, 2-bay choir chapels, a south porch, and a west tower. The chancel features a double plinth, cill strings, and eaves course, with bay buttresses and paired corner buttresses. The east wall was rebuilt in 1883 and contains a 13th-century 5-lancet window with a small gable lancet above. The north and south walls have two 15th-century 3-light windows in recesses, with a small round-arched doorway approached by steps.

The north-east chapel matches the chancel but has castellated parapets and 15th-century traceried windows set in hollow-chamfered recesses: a 5-light window in the east wall and two sub-arcuated 4-light windows in the north wall. An octagonal stair turret occupies the north-west corner.

The north aisle has no plinth to its wide east bay (a former transept), then a double plinth with bay buttresses and a string course featuring gargoyles and plain parapet. It contains four 4-light sub-arcuated 16th-century traceried windows, with a 19th-century projection at bay 4 set lower but matching the style. A segmental-arched east doorway and a 2-light segmental-arched north window beneath a stilted label lead to a gable, with a 4-light west window to the aisle.

The south-east chapel has a double plinth, cill and head string with gargoyles, and a battlemented parapet with crocketted pinnacles over bay buttresses. It contains 16th-century traceried windows: a 5-light window in the east wall and 4-light sub-arcuated windows in the south walls. The south aisle matches the north aisle but lacks the pinnacles; its windows are identical in arrangement.

The south porch is two storeys tall, with angled corner buttresses, battlemented parapets, and a gable. It features a 16th-century moulded outer arch with an ogee-cusped recess above beneath an unstopped ogee label, followed by a small 2-light window (probably 19th-century) and a small cusped ogee-arched light in the east wall. A circular stair turret is positioned at the north-west corner. Inside, the porch has a lierne vault roof with bosses, matching the inner doorway.

The nave features a 16th-century clerestorey with a battlemented parapet containing pierced quatrefoil panels and 15th-century sub-arcuated 4-light windows. Lead stackheads project from the walls.

The west tower comprises four stages, replacing one that previously stood over the central crossing. It has offset corner buttresses rising to full height, a double plinth, string courses with gargoyles extending to the top course, and battlemented parapets with quatrefoil-panelled merlons and panelled, crocketted corner pinnacles. A central weathervane crowns the tower. An octagonal stair turret of full height is situated at the north-west corner. The west doorway is moulded with a 4-centred arch, flanked by diagonally set pilasters. A 5-light west window with sub-arcuated tracery and cusped transom sits in a hollow-chamfered recess under a headstop rail; this window and doorway together occupy two stages. The north and south faces are blank below stage 3, which carries 2-light windows in recesses. Stage 4 on all faces has pairs of matching windows with panelled stone baffles. A clockface appears on the east side.

The interior preserves considerable early work. The chancel is plain with unplastered walls and a barrel vault ceiling; a large rere-arch frames the east window. The wide chancel arch has thin panelled jambs. Standard 15th and 16th-century arcades serve the side chapels.

The nave roof is a king-post truss of 1513, featuring traceried panel infills with deeply moulded members. Quatrefoil panels of varying design ornament each bay, with angel decoration to the kingposts and central pendants at mid-bay intervals. The 16th-century arcades have traceried spandrels rising to the clerestorey, with pilaster brackets over each column leading to canopied, side-panelled niches containing 17th-century figure paintings. The tower arch has two orders, the outer panelled and flanked on the nave side by traceried panels and two tiers of canopied niches with painting above and 20th-century figure statues below.

The aisles and chapels have moulded rib ceilings; that of the south-east chapel has bosses to its panels, mostly 19th-century work. The south aisle contains a cinquefoil-cusped ogee-arched piscina and a low tomb arch with rosette decoration, within which lies a worn female effigy, probably of the early 14th century. The north aisle preserves doors to the rood loft.

Fittings are primarily 19th-century, but include a 15th-century octagonal font with two cusped panels on each face of the bowl, a panelled underbowl and shaft. A nicely detailed 19th-century octagonal stone pulpit is present. The 20th-century Lady Chapel screen was designed by F. Bligh Bond.

The church was first recorded in 1156, though it probably has Saxon origins.